Zombieland

Put on your shoes now and go see ZOMBIELAND. I’m not kidding, just stop reading this and go… leave! I’m not kidding Elizabeth…Shoo! ZOMBIELAND is ten tons of awesome, laugh out loud funny and the best road movie of the ….well since GEENA DAVIS humped BRAD PITT! You can probably tell from the film’s trailer that there is plenty of splatterific yumminess to be enjoyed, but even though it delivers on that level ZOMBIELAND delivers so much more. In fact, if you must know the whole zombie thing, as well done and gratifying as it is, has little to do with why my heart is all a tingle for this movie; the characters and their interactions are gold. Even if the world had not gone to hell in an undead hand basket, I would love to watch a movie about these folks just hanging out and shooting the breeze.

WOODY HARRELSON has finally justified my love. I always dug his, “Do I have a harelip?” mug but this is easily his best performance since (another great road movie) NATURAL BORN KILLERS. JESSE EISENBERG, who just finished getting on my nerves in ADVENTURELAND, has now actually found a role that suits his persnickety jitter-boy persona to a tea and makes ya’ seriously route for the guy. EMMA STONE, the smokey voiced hottie from SUPERBAD, makes me wish I was young and straight again and ABIGAIL BRESLIN, who I’m still a bit dubious of, at least cracked me the hell up with a throw away line where she tries to explain what the deal is with HANNAH MONTANA.

Go for the action, the gore and the laughs, but stay to bask in the love. This movie has such a Zen handle on what’s important in life, our relationships to one another and the smaller things like Twinkies, rollercoasters and all things GHOSTBUSTERS (Oh man, I wanna tell ya about something SO GREAT in this movie, but I’d rather die then ruin the surprise) that to see it in a crowded theater may just renew your faith in humanity. My experience was so damn rejuvenating that I wanted to just hand out my email to everyone else in the theater that saw it with me and promise to keep in touch.

Ya know what? We already live in ZOMBIELAND folks and hopefully we all know two or three people that we can count on in a crisis and share some good times with. This movie is so much more than splat-falls; it understands the joyride aspect of the zombie film, the fact that part of the appeal is dancing on our culture’s grave. Call me a romantic, but if every other guy on the planet has to drop dead for the nerd to get the cool chick, I can only say “Awwww!”

Most of all though, ZOMBIELAND is fun with a capital “Z”, so why are you still reading this? Go’on and get!

3 responses so far ↓

Oh yeah. This one is a winner. I was at the first showing today, and I’ll be hauling my sweetie to see it on Sunday. It’s great to finally have a major release live up to my expectations. Too many movies lately have been “pretty good” or “not too bad” — this one just plain kicked ass from start to finish.

I took my parents to see it this morning, and we all loved it! So many great things to say about it (I too loved the Hannah Montana joke, as well as the one about Titanic). Such a great flick, and I hope it does well enough to give us another trip to the United States of Zombieland!